Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly is strongly in favour of Rohit Sharma opening the innings in Tests for India. Having already found incredible success in the limited-overs formats, Ganguly believes that Rohit has done enough to warrant a Test spot in place of KL Rahul, who has “flattered to deceive”.
Rahul once again had a poor series in West Indies and has made just 548 runs in his last 23 Test innings. Rahul made starts at Antigua and Sabina Park but failed to convert them and is quickly running out of chances.
“After the World Cup, India embarked on the tour of West Indies with few areas to be figured out and also the role of few cricketers,” Ganguly said in his Times of India column on Thursday. “The opening still remains an area to work on. Mayank Agarwal looks good and will need a few more opportunities to thrash out his game. But his partner is the area to be looked into. KL Rahul flattered to deceive and has not come off and that leaves with an opening at the top.”
India’s opening slot has been a subject of great interest in recent times. Besides KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal, who are the incumbents, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari and Parthiv Patel were all tried at the top with little success. Even as India bask in glory at the top of the ICC World Test Championship table and the no.1 ranked ICC team, the opening conundrum has given them a massive headache.
Ganguly had suggested opening with Rohit earlier as well. Soon after the World Cup, he recommended the Mumbaikar as opener in Tests for West Indies.
“I had suggested earlier about trying Rohit Sharma as an opener in Test cricket and still believe that he needs to be given an opportunity because he is too good a player to be left out in the cold. After a fantastic World Cup, I believe he will be itching to grab the opportunity to open in Test cricket. With [Ajinkya] Rahane and Vihari nicely settled in there is not much chance to tamper with the middle order.”
Rohit isn’t completely opposed to the idea either.
“Look, I have never been offered [to open the innings in Tests] yet but I am open to anything, as in whatever the team management wants,” Rohit had said last August during a promotional event. “I never thought I will be an opener in ODIs when I started playing or when I was playing for India. But it happened along the way, so I [want to] keep my options open. No option is shut for me, so if the opportunity comes, I will take it.”